[mbrubeck]

Well, like I said, typically they are owned by not by individual companies but by industry associations or coalitions. These consist of member companies which individually compete with each other, but have worked together to define a standard and market it to consumers. For example, Supima is a non-profit organization run by a coalition of cotton growers, which licenses its trademarks to textile manufacturers.

It's a fair point that there is a private entity that owns the trademark and can technically do whatever it wants with it. It doesn't just magically "emerge" from the market without any coordination - but then, nothing does. Market actors come up with mechanisms to communicate standards. Some of these mechanisms happen to be voluntary and reputation-based rather than enforced by law.